Indigenous comedian Don Burnstick was back in Six Nations last week for two comedy shows, including a fundraiser for a local lacrosse team on Six Nations.

CKRZ caught up with Burnstick while he was in town to learn more about his personal and professional background, the pandemic and healing through comedy.

Burnstick from Alexander First Nation out west. In his family, Burnstick is the youngest of 15 siblings, including ten boys. He had a traumatic and violent upbringing in Edmonton that led to a path of personal destruction, he said. Yet he eventually found a unique coping skill: his humour.

He also found a way of using humour with healing and wellness that allowed him to help others and he received post secondary training at the University of San Diego in Holistic Urban Youth Development. Now, after years of performing comedy, Burnstick says, "your pain is your power."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he credits his humour with saving at least one person. When a young woman was in crisis, she was considering suicide when she came across a live online show Burnstick was putting on. The comedy performance made her laugh and helped her through the crisis, which she told him later.

Burnstick said he has been using his humour along with healing and wellness in an effort to help people for the last 30 years. He performs the play "I Am Alcohol - Healing the Wounded Warrior” that presents a dramatization of addictive powers and destructive forces that have plagued Indigenous communities.

Listen to the CKRZ story below: